TBA The Biotechnology Initiative

The Voice of Bioscience in Ontario



Thursday November 15, 2007 TBI Breakfast

November’s TBI breakfast meeting got off to a much calmer start, as this time around there were no false alarms to interrupt the session. Breakfast goers had the full two hours this time around to enjoy the presentations of the morning’s speakers.

Dr. Graham Wright, the research director of the Schulich heart program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre got things underway with his presentation on the growing national and international stature in cardiovascular MRI. His presentation titled “Cardiovascular MRI” looked at ways MRI technology is moving beyond its current function of diagnosis, into the realm of intervention.

Coinciding with Wrights presentation, Visual Sonics representative Dr. Catherine Theodoropolous discussed how high-resolution ultrasound devices developed by her company are being used in small animal imaging for efficiently viewing extremely small physiological structures as well as imaging living tissue and blood flow with microscopic resolution. The device itself has capabilities in various research areas including biology, cardiovascular imaging, cancer biology and neurobiology. To date over 350 systems have been sold worldwide mostly to academics and researchers.

Additionally, both speakers underlined the importance of their respective technologies and the collective impact each will have on future cardiovascular research.

The breakfast concluded with the announcement of the next TBI event to be held Thursday December 20. Speakers and topics are to be confirmed shortly.